


And Wasteland All Around Us

by whitesilence



Series: The Multiverse Theory [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombies, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-28
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-04-23 18:38:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4887595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitesilence/pseuds/whitesilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy had watched her share of horror movies and she knew how they ended. She was not going to end up dead like that, not if she could help it.</p><p>Zombie AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to do a zombie AU for a while but I don't think the specifics of the zombies are really that important to the story. 
> 
> What is important is that Jane and crew went back to New Mexico after being packed off to Norway during The Avengers movie. Thor: TDW didn't happen but Captain America: TWS did. Don't worry though, Thor will show up later. Probably.

Darcy watched the blacked out quinjet land in the outskirts of what remained of Puente Antiguo. She’d heard them coming long before the aircraft came into view, the sound of its engines carrying over the empty desert. She wondered what they were doing, landing over there because she was pretty sure SHIELD knew the exact location of the Foster lab. She’d sent it fifteen times just to be sure. Through her rifle scope, she watched as two figures emerged from the aircraft. They were dressed in anonymous black uniforms but the greyed out round shield and the jet pack immediately identified them. Captain America and the Falcon.

“We’ve got company,” she said into the walkie talkie clipped to her shoulder. “Jane, it looks like the Avengers finally came for us.”

“Okay.” 

Jane’s apathy was evident in her reply even when it was covered in static. Darcy sighed and knew not to bother asking Jane to come look. If the possibility of rescue couldn’t pull her away from math, nothing would. The woman had been working on a theorem for the past three hours and probably didn’t even know she’d eaten lunch. Eric wasn’t going to be any help either.

Darcy sighed, slinging her rifle as she rose and made her way down from the lookout post she’d built on the rooftop. 

“Hey James, I’m going to go check out the visitors. Think they might be old friends of yours,” she called as she came down the stairs, her footsteps light for once.

James shot to his feet.

“It’s not Hydra,” she said quickly. 

James had showed up a few months after Hydra released the virus. KA-05, they called it. Darcy figured it was payback for being outed. But it didn’t really matter why, it just killed people off and then reanimated the corpses, spreading like wildfire and leaving fear and chaos in its wake. The tiny desert town had been safe for a while but somehow, the virus managed to find it’s way to every nook and cranny of the globe. Including Puente Antiguo.

She’d been smart enough to start stockpiling food, water and ammo when the first solid evidence of walking dead people started appearing online, boarding up the windows and building a barricade around the old car dealership. Darcy had watched her share of horror movies and she knew how they ended. She was not going to end up dead like that, not if she could help it. Who knew growing up in a backwoods town where shooting road signs was a major form of teenage entertainment would finally come in handy?

So they’d been safe when the first people in town started turning. At first she’d tried to help as many as she could but then more and more of them started dying (fortunately not inside the barricade) or leaving to strike out on their own until it was just her and the scientists left. 

They had come across James a few days after the last time she’d seen anyone from town alive. She and Jane were sneaking back to the lab after clearing out the remaining food and water from one of the three grocery stores when he’d staggered around the corner just as they were about to turn and in the ensuing surprise of finding another living human being, Darcy may have shot him in the leg a little. 

It was a graze really, just a minor flesh wound, hardly worth mentioning. 

It wasn’t until they’d helped him back to the dealership and got him out of his jacket that she realized who he was. The man who had nearly taken down Captain America. She’d seen the crappy cell phone videos and read what little she’d been able to find about the helicarrier incident. She hadn’t found much on him before the net went dark but she was one hundred percent sure that metal prosthetic arms like that were not a dime a dozen. 

At the time, James hadn’t been very clear on what his name was or who he was in general and it was obvious he was recovering from some severe trauma. She almost shot him again when he’d woken up swinging the first time. After they sorted out that misunderstanding, he seemed content to stick around. She didn’t pry too hard, letting him come to her when he was ready. Over time, he began to emerge from his shell and get more involved in day to day life. He didn’t talk much but he was a godsend to Darcy when it came to keeping all of them alive. Goodness knows Jane and Eric didn’t seem at all interested.

When what was left of the government had finally confirmed the existence of the virus and its effects on people, Jane had tried to get a message out to whatever remained of SHIELD or the Avengers. At first, they’d been told to sit tight, someone would be there to pick them up, arrival TBD. But after the fifth or sixth time being told to wait, Jane gave up on rescue and threw herself into building an Einstein-Rosen bridge with a fervor that Darcy hadn’t seen since Thor had skipped out on them and Eric had merrily followed her down the astrophysics rabbit hole.

So it fell to her and James to take care of the practical business of staying alive. Something she wasn’t sure they would be able to do for much longer, what with their food supplies dwindling and water getting scarce as well. She had been talking to James about taking the pinzgauer and making a foray into the next few towns over but hopefully they wouldn’t have to if Captain America and the Falcon had come to pick them up. 

Which left her itching to get outside and meet them. They were safe enough during the day, when the sun baked the desert but night was falling and sometimes the remaining walkers decided to come out early. James left the table where he’d been loading magazines to peek through the metal slats that covered the windows. 

“I think it’ll be more of a meet and greet. Hopefully, they came to get us out of here.” She went to stand next to him at the window and glanced out across the abandoned buildings. At street level, she could see the quinjet parked across town but not where the two possible rescuers had gone. “I’ve got my radio but can you take the crow’s nest? Watch my back?”

He flashed her the small, tentative smile that had made its first appearance a month ago and nodded. She smiled back at him as she turned to leave but paused when he caught her wrist. At her curious glance, he tugged her hood up over her head, the metal hand on her shoulder squeezing gently.

“Be careful?” his voice rusty from disuse.

She grinned as she slipped out the door. “You know me, I’m always careful.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “James, do you remember Captain America?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are all insane, bee tee dubs and I hate you all because I was going to just leave this story with everyone being evacuated by Cap and the Falcon but yeah, now I have ideas and plots and relationship triangles and augh! Did I mention I hate you all?
> 
> Okay, not really. 
> 
> Seriously, thank you for supporting this story. It means a lot. For those asking, I might work more zombie specifics into the story itself but for now, I'll take your questions in the comments section so tread carefully there if you don't want to accidentally, maybe, spoil yourself.

The quinjet had set down at the opposite end of what had once been the town’s main drag. The street was relatively clear along its mile and a half stretch but there were a few collisions and abandoned vehicles that no one had bothered to remove. Aside from some other random debris, it was safe enough to walk in broad daylight if one kept their head on a swivel but when night fell, the walkers would emerge. It seemed odd to her that they would avoid heat and daylight but what did she know?

Darcy made her way down the street, rifle at the ready, searching for the two Avengers. She was about halfway across town when her radio crackled.

“At your ten o’clock, other side of the delivery truck.”

Darcy slid over to the truck, down the driver’s side and peered around the back end.

Captain America and the Falcon were outside what had once been a medical clinic, getting ready to enter. Darcy knew for a fact that the office was empty, having cleaned it out as soon as the doctor himself had turned, early on. There might be a few walkers holed up in there but other than that, nothing worth going in for.

“Don’t waste your time,” she called. “It’s empty.”

The two men whirled, guns up and aimed at her head. She stepped away from the edge of the truck but still in James’s field of view with her hands raised.

“Who are you?” demanded the Captain, not lowering his weapon.

“Darcy Lewis, assistant to Dr. Jane Foster, at your service,” she replied. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

The two men stared at her for a moment before sharing a glance between themselves. As soon as they lowered their weapons, Darcy dropped her arms with a sigh of relief.

“You talking about Thor’s lady?”

She arched an eyebrow at the Falcon. “The one that Thor thought was important enough to have SHIELD send to Norway but never call? Yeah, that’s her.”

“How long have you been out here?”

“This whole time. Dude, where have you guys been?” she demanded. Something was hinky about the situation and she was beginning to think this wasn’t a rescue mission. “And for that matter, what’s been going on? We’ve been trying to get someone to pick us up for months!”

They glanced at each other again, expressions grim. Finally, Captain America spoke again. “Darcy, everything’s gone. SHIELD, the US government, hell even the EU. We didn’t come here expecting to rescue you but we won’t leave you here. You can come with us when we leave.”

She nodded, having suspected as much when the Net went down. “Then why did you come here? This wasn’t exactly a top vaycay destination before.”

“We heard rumors that a man with a metal hand had been sighted in the area. Maybe you’ve seen him pass through?”

Darcy pursed her lips, eyes narrowing at the two superheroes. She opened her mouth but before she could speak, a shot rang out. She whirled around to see a headless walker lying on the pavement by the driver’s side door of the truck. The sun had sunk almost completely below the horizon in the time they had been talking. More walkers would be coming out of the woodwork as the temperature dropped.

“Move,” James ordered her over the radio. “Incoming on 3rd. You’ll get cut off.”

She turned back to the two surprised men. “Let’s talk about this back at the lab. Follow me.”

Without looking to see if they were following, she took off down the street. The Captain caught up with her easily, keeping pace while the Falcon took to the sky and began firing as soon as he was in range of the walkers.

But the hail of bullets did nothing to slow them down, instead driving the walkers towards them. Even with James sniping from the roof, enough made it into the street to block their path. Darcy shouldered her rifle with a curse and began shooting as they came into spitting distance of the walkers. Captain America used his shield to decapitate several in one throw before slowing slightly to assess the situation.

“Are we headed for the building at the end of the street?” he yelled to her.

“Yeah!” She wanted to roll her eyes but didn’t because three of them had somehow flanked her and attacked at the same time. She dodged one and rammed the buttstock of her rifle into the skull of another, neutralizing it. But this left her open to the one on the right. What was left of one of the diner waitresses grabbed her arm with a claw like hand and got all up in her face. She punched the walker, her fist scraping against teeth exposed by decaying flesh and kept punching until she could kick it to the ground and twist out of its grip.

“Pardon me, ma’am!” The Captain said as he tossed her roughly over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and sprinted the last three blocks at superhuman speed to the lab where the Falcon was landing on the roof.

James was waiting at the opening in the barricade to let them in, slamming it shut when they were through. He was by her side the instant the Captain let her down, checking her over for injury.

“James, I’m fine.” she said in response to his fussing. He worried over the welt on her hand. It didn’t look like it had broken her skin but even the tiniest bit of saliva entering her bloodstream could mean death.

“I saw you punch it with your bare knuckles. Make sure you wash your hands as soon as we get inside.” he replied, his palm heavy on the back of her neck. “I told you to be careful.”

“You know me, I’m always careful and it was a dried up old prune. I’m surprised it could even move.” She leaned her forehead against his shoulder for a moment before looking up at him. “James, do you remember Captain America?”

He glanced up in surprise to see the Captain watching him nervously as though waiting for him to attack. Darcy was relieved when his hand dropped away and he turned to face his one time opponent.

“Steve?”

“Yeah, Buck. It’s me.” A funny little smile pulled at his lips as Steve took his helmet off. “You been out here all this time?”

“Couldn’t leave them to fend for themselves,” he replied, slowly. “‘Sides, they kinda grow on you.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is that Captain America?” Jane asked, wandering into the kitchen to frown at the empty coffee pot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm away for the weekend. Not sure if I'll have time to post on Sunday so have this chapter early!

Darcy made a beeline for the sink as soon as they all entered the lab, leaving James to lead their guests into the area that functioned as their living room. Using generous amounts of antibacterial soap, she scrubbed her hands until they felt raw. 

“Is that Captain America?” Jane asked, wandering into the kitchen to frown at the empty coffee pot. Darcy pulled out their last can of coffee and handed it to her.

“Yeah. And the other guy is the Falcon.” 

Jane replaced the coffee filter, added more coffee grounds and water, and started the coffee maker before she spoke again. While her friend’s listlessness was frustrating, Darcy knew that Jane’s all consuming obsession with the Einstein-Rosen bridge was actually her way of showing that she did care. At first, the older woman had been extremely skeptical of all the hysteria while Darcy built the barricade. By the time she had truly acknowledged the severity of their situation, they were on their fourth message to SHIELD. Given her terrifying inaccuracy with firearms, Jane likely saw the creation of the bridge as the only way she could contribute.

“Should I start packing up?” 

Darcy leaned against the counter facing the window, leaving her back to Jane but the slightly hopeful note in the older woman’s voice could be heard.

“Probably. Not sure how much space they have on the quinjet though. Might want to pack light.” 

She jumped a little in surprise when Jane’s arms came around to hug her waist. Darcy turned and hugged her back, letting Jane cry silently into her shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” Jane hiccupped wetly. “I’m sorry I haven’t been much help. I know you would be so much better off if you didn’t have to take care of me and Eric but thank you for staying. I’m so glad you stayed.”

“Oh Jane, you don’t have anything to be sorry about. You’re my friend. I wasn’t going to just ditch you.” Darcy reassured her, stroking the smaller woman’s back. “One of these days you’ll figure out the bridge and we’ll blow this popsicle stand. And you can hunt Thor down and give him a piece of your mind.”

“That’s just it, Darcy. I don’t know if I can get it to work. The math is right but the technology… I don’t think it’s something I can build with a box of scraps. There weren’t exactly any Instructables for transdimensional portals.”

“Well, good thing we’re getting out of here then, isn’t it?” Darcy nudged Jane backwards but kept a hold on her thin shoulders. “Let’s go say hello to the Captain.”

They went into the living room area where James was telling them about his trek across the country after running from the Battle of Washington D.C.. He’d come across their coordinates sometime during his systematic hunt for Hydra cells and had made his way to Puente Antiguo intending to neutralize what he thought was another Hydra base. He had been completely blindsided when he found two scientists and a trigger happy intern instead. Darcy and Jane sat down just as James got to the part where Darcy shot him. She threw her hands up as everyone looked at her.

“But did you die?” she exclaimed, defensively. “I was surprised, okay? It was totally an accident!”

“True but it still hurt like a bi-” James cut himself off with what was as close to a grin as she’d ever seen from him. “-blivet.”

Darcy rolled her eyes and turned to the two Avengers. “This is Dr. Foster. She’s the one who ran Thor over with the Pinzgauer.”

“Pleased to meet you, ma’am.” He stood, offering his hand.

“Just Jane is fine, Captain.” Jane replied, accepting the handshake and sending an irritated look at Darcy.

“And just Steve is fine as well.” 

“And I’m just Sam!” added the other man with a jaunty wave, smiling at Jane.

“Nice to meet you both, but why’d it take so long for you to come get us?” Jane demanded, straight to the point as usual.

As one might expect, bringing down SHIELD had removed virtually all of the Avengers’ support infrastructure, leaving Tony Stark as their only known safe harbor. Steve had been reluctant to go to Stark at first but even he had to admit he needed help when the dead began to reanimate. And eventually, the situation reached the point where he hadn’t been able to continue his fruitless search for Bucky in good conscience and ignore the escalating pandemic.

But then he’d started hearing rumors, just whispers at first. Glimpses and tall tales of a man that moved like a shadow and fought like the devil. Some argued that it couldn’t be anything human, that it was an Iron Legion drone gone rogue or even another monster created by Hydra. But eventually three-fifths of a family fleeing into the Rocky Mountains confirmed that they had seen a man with a metal hand in an otherwise unremarkable town called Puente Antiguo in the New Mexican desert. He hadn’t been able to investigate right away but he’d looked it up on a map, thought the name sounded familiar though he wasn’t able to place it at the time. The connection to Thor didn’t occur to him until they’d run into Darcy. 

“I’m sorry we didn’t come for you sooner.” Steve said.

Ever pragmatic, Jane waved away his apology. “You’re not the one I’m mad at.”

“Even so-”

“Nope, let’s change the subject to something that’s going to actually be useful.” 

“Like getting us out of here, maybe?” Darcy asked, wiggling her eyebrows hopefully. 

Steve looked around at their small circle and shook his head, letting out a small huff of laughter at their tenacity. “Well, we don’t have much room on the jet. We won’t be able to take everything and I’m not going to make any promises about being able to come back. Just bring what you can’t live without. ”

“Most of my work has been theoretical lately anyway.” Jane said. “I’ll be able to pack everything into a few cases.”

“Alright, think you can be ready by morning?”

“I’ll make it work.” Jane assured him while Darcy raised a skeptical eyebrow. Jane was incapable of packing lightly. Good thing her own bug out bag was ready. She had a feeling she was going to be up all night.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Besides, he’s the friend who tracked you down in the middle of an apocalypse. I don’t know about you but that counts for something in my book."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This kinda went in a direction I wasn't exactly expecting. But I feel like it's kind of a new thing that I want to explore so yeah, I went there. Don't hate me, I'm planning a happy ending.
> 
> Not sure if I'll be able to post these next two weekends. Work and stuff being work and stuff, I'm sure you all know how it goes. So I guess I'll see you when I see you.

Thankfully, Sam volunteered to help Jane pack while Darcy started dinner. Most days they didn't eat anything fancy, usually rice or pasta supplemented with whatever canned food she pulled from their stores. But today, she had three desert jackrabbits they had shot during target practice that morning and she didn't want to let them go to waste.

James joined her in the kitchen while the stew was simmering. He leaned against the counter next to her, watching her work for a moment before picking up a knife and turned it over in his hands.

"You okay?" she asked. "This is probably a huge shock for you."

He shrugged, putting the knife back onto the cutting board. "We weren't going to be able to stay here forever anyway."

"I know but that doesn't mean we don't have choices." She put down the spoon she was using to stir the stew and turned to face him. “That you don’t have choices.”

As with any two people stuck together keeping a watch, they had passed the many empty hours talking. At first it had just been Darcy telling James about the plans she had made for the future, clinging to the hope that things could go back to normal. A hope that she had held onto for longer than was probably healthy. He had been a great listener but hadn’t always talked much himself. When he eventually opened up, it was usually about something he was having trouble making sense of. Darcy had tried to help him figure things out but the one thing he always came back to and yet refused to discuss was one Steve Rogers, Captain America.

During one particularly long night in March when men and wolves and walkers had threatened the lab, he told her that his memories had returned to him in one giant flood a few weeks into his flight. He could recall his life history with perfect clarity, could describe exactly what had been done to him during the seventy years with Hydra and what he had done to others, in explicit detail. However, his feelings about the events were muted. 

His one man war on Hydra had begun before he truly recognized why he was so driven. At first, biting the hand that had hurt him for so long seemed like a logical and reasonable course of action in the face of all the pain and suffering. But James described the more gradual return of the emotional response to his past as a building wave that sometimes overwhelmed him. 

One of the reasons he stayed with Darcy and the scientists was that they had become something of an island for him, a chance to pause and sort out what he was feeling. Guilt and anger and helplessness, things he hadn’t experienced for decades but also shame. So much shame for things stretching back as far as the first time he was captured by Hydra to abandoning Steve on a riverbank. 

“I don’t think I’m ready. I stayed here because I...” He made an abortive gesture, like he’d wanted to reach for her but stopped himself, avoiding her gaze. “I stayed because you needed me and I like it here. But Hydra… I want to finish what I started.”

“Steve could help you.” Darcy said, hopefully. She didn’t want to lose him, he had been her rock in this hard place. “They probably have a whole team working on taking out Hydra. I’m sure they could use your help.”

“It’s just… all I have to do is think about Steve and I can’t... seem to be rational. Everything’s just a big ball of… feels.” He shook his head at his inability to articulate his feelings. “I can’t even handle thinking about him, what would it be like if I had to see him every day?”

“Well, you’re doing okay now. Maybe it’s exactly what you need.” Darcy urged him. “Besides, he’s the friend who tracked you down in the middle of an apocalypse. I don’t know about you but that counts for something in my book. And I’m pretty sure Captain America can handle whatever you can throw at him.”

“She’s right.”

They both whipped around to see Steve standing next to the table that functioned as their dining area, gripping the back of one of the chairs so tightly Darcy thought it would splinter. She didn’t know how long he had been there, having gone up to the roof to send a radio transmission when their little group had adjourned. But he had clearly heard more than enough of the conversation.

Steve visibly forced himself to let go of the chair and moved into the kitchen with his hands at his sides in a clearly non-threatening manner, stopping out of James’s reach. Darcy could tell by the look in his eye that the blonde man wanted very badly to hug his friend but was restraining himself.

“The Avengers, what’s left of us, we are working on taking out Hydra. We could definitely use your help. And I really, really want you to come back with me, Bucky.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “But only if you want to. If you’re not ready to come back, if you want more time… then I understand.”

He looked James straight in the eye. “Even when I had nothing, I had you, Bucky. I just wanted to know you were okay.”

For his part, James didn’t seem to know how to react to Steve’s response. He had told Darcy once, one of the few times that he'd mentioned Steve, was that he was like a dog with a bone, when he got an idea into his head, good luck getting him to let go. So she was a little surprised by his words, especially for someone who had worked so hard to find his friend.

“I’m sorry.” James said, his eyes pleading and hand outstretched like an olive branch. “I just can’t yet.”

Steve clasped James’s hand like a lifeline. “It’s okay. Just promise me you’ll take a radio and stay in touch?”

He nodded.

“Where will you go?” asked Darcy.

“The safe haven we’ve been hearing about in Colorado, up in the Rockies. I want to go scout it out. I’ll do the recon and report back to you.”

“Cheyenne Mountain?” Steve looked down at his hand, still joined with James, his gaze thoughtful. “It’s a possible Hydra base. We have an agent in deep cover infiltrating it. I haven’t gotten any updates recently but last word was that the people there have some kind of immunity or defense for KA-05.”

“Super soldier serum?”

“We’re not sure. No check-ins missed yet but the reports have been pretty sparse. Couldn’t hurt to have another set of eyes in the area.”

James caught Darcy’s eye then, as though asking her permission. Darcy bit her lip, feeling a little like the rug had been pulled out from under her. She’d known, logically, that James didn’t really need them to survive but she’d gotten used to having him as a partner. Still, they would be safe enough with Steve and the Avengers. She supposed she didn’t really need him anymore either. Didn’t mean she wouldn’t miss him though.

“You should take the Pinz.” she said, quickly. “We can load it up with supplies and fuel. There’s enough to get you to the next big city at least.” 

She didn’t realize how tense she had been until she saw the line of James’s shoulders relax and felt her own drop in response. She smiled a little before clapping her hands together. “Alright, now that that’s all decided, let’s get ready to eat!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So, how long has that been going on?” asked Jane, a teasing light in eyes that had been dull for too long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a bit longer to get out than I wanted to take. Life has been crazy for the last six months or so but hey, it's December now! I'm really looking forward to a new year. (And hopefully some new management? Is that something you can bring us, Santa?)
> 
> Anyway, I was getting tired of the one scene per chapter format I was doing so this one is a bit more action and plot packed. Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> PS: Internet points to the person who catches the Firefly reference. :D

Normally, James and Darcy took turns sleeping and keeping watch throughout the day and night but with Sam’s UAV more than capable of alerting them to encroaching walkers or intruders, they both decided to take advantage of the opportunity to sleep. So she awoke feeling more well rested than she had in months to find Sam fixing up their final meal with whatever they hadn’t been able to fit in the Pinz for James. Breakfast was usually a quiet affair but today, it had an air of lightness and relief that had been missing for some time. And it was all set against the backdrop of a vibrant sky, one more gorgeous sunrise to remember New Mexico by.

Jane was the one to lock up the car dealership turned astrophysics lab turned apocalypse sanctuary. Darcy patted the metal gate as they loaded up and together, the group made their way to the quinjet. While everyone else stowed their gear and Sam began their preflight checks, Steve and James said their good-byes outside next to the Pinz. Darcy busied herself by making sure their belongings and the equipment Jane couldn’t live without were secured and was definitely not eavesdropping on the two super soldiers. They were too far away to hear in any case.

After what looked like a bone crushing hug, Steve turned and made his way into the cockpit. Whatever had passed between the two men left a hopeful look on his face and a slackness in the line of his shoulders.

“Darcy.”

She looked up to see James standing at the bottom of the ramp, hands buried in his jacket pockets, a stance as casual as she’d ever seen him take.

“Take care of yourself, James,” she said, coming down the ramp to stand in front of him but stopping short enough to put her at just about his eye level.

“I will.” He paused, hesitant in a way she had rarely seen. His hand came up to cup the back of her neck and she mirrored him, leaning forward to touch their foreheads together as they had so many times before.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice catching ever so slightly, like he wanted to say more but was unable to find the words. She smiled gently, pressing a light kiss to his lips.

“Don’t mention it.”

She began to pull away but was happily surprised to find herself crushed into a much deeper kiss. Her world quickly narrowed to the slightly chapped feel of his lips on hers, the brush of his tongue across the seam of her mouth and the sweet taste of him. It all combined to overwhelm her senses until a wolf whistle from Jane jolted her back to herself and she felt her cheeks flame red.

“Be careful,” James said, that new smile peeking through.

“You know me, I’m always careful,” she replied, pressing one more quick kiss to his lips. “Watch your back.”

“I will.”

Another tight hug and then he was gone, the door of the Pinz shutting before she could register that he had moved. The engine grumbled as he pulled away and in what felt like no time at all, the truck was nothing more than a small dot in the desert landscape, leaving only a wisp of dust in it’s wake.

“So, how long has that been going on?” asked Jane, a teasing light in eyes that had been dull for too long.

“Just now,” Darcy replied in a slightly stunned voice. Giving herself a shake, she turned and walked back up the ramp with Jane. Inside the quinjet, she took one last look over their cargo and realized that something was missing. Or rather, someone.

“Jane? Where’s Eric?”

The older woman whipped around, casting about frantically. “He was right here. I had him strapped in and everything.”

They went back down the ramp, looking over the empty street and desolate buildings surrounding them. 

“Ready to go?” Steve asked, emerging from the jet as the engines began spinning up behind them. 

“No!” Jane exclaimed. “We’ve lost Eric. He was right here.”

It was then that Darcy caught sight of a lone figure running out of the remains of the hardware store three blocks away. For a moment, she thought everything would be fine until what looked like half the walkers in Puente Antiguo poured out of the building behind him in hot pursuit. 

“Eric!” Darcy unslung her rifle and started running. “Steve, let’s go! Jane, tell Sam to get ready to take off in a hurry.”

Although Darcy was sprinting forward, Steve quickly passed her and the fleeing scientist to meet the walkers that had pulled ahead of the main pack. Darcy pointed Eric towards the aircraft, firing on the walkers that made it past Steve. She shouted for him to fall back to the jet as it began to lift off. Darcy would be appropriately impressed later by Sam’s impressive display of piloting as it moved backwards to meet them while remaining less than ten feet off the ground. At the time though, Darcy just pushed Eric towards the hovering jet while Steve fought his way back to her side.

“Hurry!” Jane shouted from the end of the ramp. Eric ran and jumped, catching the ramp with one hand, the other clutching a box to his chest. Jane reached down and pulled him up by the back of his shirt and belt while Darcy continued to fire on the encroaching undead.

“Want a boost?” Steve asked when he reached her. She glanced up to gauge the distance.

“Please and thank you.” She barely had time to say before she found herself flying up over the edge of the ramp and rolling to a stop in front of a stack of crates. Steve flipped up into the quinjet after her, shouting for Sam to “Go, go, go!” while Jane slapped the button to close the ramp as soon as he was on board.

The jet began to lift away but in the transition from vertical to horizontal thrust the aircraft dropped just low enough that one walker, despite months of decay, was still able to jump up and grab hold of the ramp as it passed by. Darcy saw it scrabbling for purchase, half in and half out of the jet. She ran forward and kicked it in the face, sending it tumbling away into the crowd of reaching hands below.

“We all here? What’s going on?” Sam asked over the intercom. “Hello?”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What were you thinking, Erik?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope I didn't leave you all hanging too long with the last chapter. This one is a little more revealing. Also, way back on chapter one or two, someone asked about Tony's secret lair. This is not Tony's secret lair. That comes later. 
> 
> Anyway, there shouldn't be too much going on at work right now so I should be able to get a few more chapters out before things start to pick up in the new year. No promises though.
> 
> Also, I wrote a little missing scene between Steve and Bucky. If you're interested, it's posted as it's own story under the title["Hell Behind Us"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5476010/chapters/12654341).
> 
> Okay, I can hear you groaning from here. I'll shut up and let you get to the story now!

“What were you thinking, Erik?!” Jane yelled, on her knees next to the older scientist. He lay in a heap where she had dropped him on the metal decking. She was now frantically checking him over for injuries and not letting him get a word in edgewise.

She cried out in dismay when she pushed up his sleeve to find a bloody bite mark on his forearm.

“Tell me you have a first aid kit on board!” Darcy yelled up to the cockpit as she tore off the keffiyeh she wore around her neck and tossed it to Jane to press against the bite. She quickly finished checking Erik over for other injuries but found none. About then, Sam appeared with a big white box, bottle of rubbing alcohol already in hand. Darcy snatched it up and began pouring it over the bite. Erik yelled in pain, struggling to push them all away. 

“Hold still!” Jane ordered as she held him down with surprising strength. Darcy found a tourniquet in the first aid kit and wrapped it around Erik’s arm while Sam made quick work of cleaning and bandaging the bite.

“That’s all we can do for now. We’ll get the doctors to take a look when we land.” He said, sitting back on his heels and regarding Erik with concern. “You alright man? Hurt anywhere else?”

Erik shook his head. “I’ll be fine.”

“What was so important that you risked your life to get it?” Jane demanded as she helped him off the decking and onto one of the benches for passengers.

Erik at least had the grace to look sheepish, casting around for the box that had gotten knocked aside in the scramble. Darcy found it half hidden behind the crates that held all their worldly possessions and passed it over.

“A voltmeter?!” Jane shrieked when she opened the box and saw what it was. Darcy put a quelling on her friend’s shoulder. Jane frowned, closing her mouth with a snap.

“For the phase meter.”

Jane sighed, deflating like a balloon. She clearly wanted to yell some more but Darcy was glad when she held back. “You didn’t have to risk your life for this, Erik. There isn’t anything to test it against even if you did build one and got it to work.”

“Jane...” Sam started to say but Darcy caught his eye and shook her head, gesturing towards the cockpit. He sent her a questioning look but followed her forward without protest.

“Let them be for now. It’s how she shows she cares and it’ll keep their minds off the other thing.”

Sam pursed his lips as he dropped into the co-pilot seat next to Steve but said nothing.

“Everything under control?” Steve asked. 

“Yeah, Erik was bitten but it was still bleeding. So that’s good. It’s wrapped up now. All we can do is wait.” Sam replied.

“Alright. I radioed ahead and let the Argo know we have a bite on board. They’ll have docs and the med bay on standby when we land.”

“Argo?” Darcy asked, she’d assumed they were going to Avengers Tower but it made sense that they would have moved to a less obvious base. “What’s that?”

“You’ll see.” Steve said. “I didn’t pick the name.”

“How long will it take to get there?” 

Sam glanced over at the flight computer and did a double take. “They’re coming off station?”

“I guess Doctor Selvig is pretty important. They’re going to meet us so it should only take an hour or two.”

Darcy was still confused, none of what they were saying made any sense to her but she figured she’d find out soon enough. She stayed in the cockpit for a while, watching the clouds go by outside the windscreen but eventually, she stood and made her way back to the rear of the small aircraft to check on the two scientists.

Erik had fallen into a fitful sleep, his head resting on Jane’s shoulder. The scientist was picking at her cuticles, trying not to fidget and wake him up.

“You okay?” Darcy asked, taking the seat on her other side.

“We should be celebrating. We were supposed to be safe.” She said, looking up at Darcy with red rimmed eyes. “Now Erik’s dying.”

“He’ll be okay.” Darcy put a hand over Jane’s to still her fingers, trying to put as much reassurance in her voice as possible. “He’ll be okay.”

“I know it seemed like I wasn’t paying attention but I did read up on some of what got posted on the virus. The infection rate is nearly one hundred percent if you’re bitten, Darcy. The fraction of a percent that didn’t were either pro athlete healthy or… enhanced in some way. Erik isn’t any of those things.”

“You can’t get stuck on that right now.” Darcy said. She wasn’t sure how to handle Jane in complete and utter despair. Even when she’d been at her angriest with Thor, she’d still held out some quantum of hope, some sense of purpose. But now, Jane looked so completely lost that Darcy almost wished they were were back inside the dealership. Shaking herself, she pushed the negative thoughts down.

“He has a fever, Darcy.”

She felt the words like a blow from James’s metal fist. If she hadn’t already been sitting, she probably would have stumbled. Fever meant infection and infection was a death sentence when it came to the KA-05 virus.

“I can’t lose him.” Jane’s voice broke, speaking just above a whisper. “He's the only family I have left.”

“Hey, what am I? Chopped liver?” She asked weakly. She reached over and put her palm over Erik’s forehead just to be sure. Her heart sank at the heat she found there. “Look, maybe Shield has something that can help. Maybe he’ll get lucky. But whatever happens, you’ll still have me.”

“I know.” Jane said, her voice waterlogged. She leaned into Darcy and they fell silent, neither of them talking for the rest of the flight except when Darcy went up to the cockpit briefly to update Sam on Erik’s condition.

Finally, Steve called for them to strap in over the intercom and Darcy helped Jane fasten the crash webbing around Erik before securing herself. The descent seemed shorter and faster than she was expecting but they landed with barely a bounce so she wasn’t about to complain. 

When they came to a stop, Sam came to help them with a groggy Erik as the quinjet’s ramp dropped down to reveal a full medical team waiting with a gurney. They loaded Erik up and quickly whisked him away, the pararescueman briefing the doctors while they moved. Jane followed, sprinting to keep up with Sam, leaving Darcy alone with the jet. She sighed and set about releasing the cargo netting. 

“What are you doing?” 

Darcy jumped at the sound of Steve’s voice. “I figured I should start getting this unloaded. I’m sure you’re going to need the quinjet again soon.”

Steve shook his head and gestured for her to follow him. “We’re rationing fuel pretty hard these days. This bird won’t be making any flights for a while.”

Dropping the cargo net, she exited the jet only to find that instead of being on the ground as she had expected, she was still airborne.

“I thought you destroyed them all.” Her voice filled with no little awe. “This is amazing!”

“No, not all.” Steve said with a shake of his head. “Just the ones from Insight.”

“Is this the original then?”

“Retrofitted with an arc-reactor power plant and repulsor engines, yes.”

Stepping past him in a daze, she was amazed to find that she was on the flight deck of a helicarrier. Darcy had read about them and seen pictures of course but she had never thought she’d ever actually be on one. It was much, much larger and busier than she had imagined. 

In front of her was the control tower and bridge, overseeing the bustle of activity taking place across the flight deck. There were other quinjets, lined up in neat rows to her right and more planes just visible in the hangar under the second runway where crews were occupied with the maintenance and tasks required to run and maintain all the aircraft, including the helicarrier itself. Wind whipping her hair, Darcy turned and saw Steve watching her with a wistful smile, towering cumulus clouds visible in the open sky behind him.

“Welcome to the _Argo_ , Darcy.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The doctor had barely managed to finish speaking before Jane burst out with an enthusiastic “YES!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, sooo sorry for taking so long. I don't know what happened because I wrote 90% of this at the beginning of January and then just... sat on it? All that writing I was hoping to get done over the holidays totally didn't happen. 
> 
> Anyway, lots of sci fi pseudo science babble because zombies aren't actually real and I don't really have much actual knowledge of biology. This chapter is also really dialogue heavy but we can expect more action next chapter, as well as news from Bucky.

Some time later, Darcy found herself sitting opposite Jane in a small room just off the medical bay, Erik unconscious and restrained on a bed between them. His condition had deteriorated rapidly since arriving on the helicarrier, going from semi-coherent to nearly comatose in the course of just a few hours. There hadn’t been much the doctors could do other than make sure he was comfortable and hydrated. 

Jane had cried herself to sleep a while ago, slumped over her arms against the side of Eric’s bed but Darcy couldn’t seem to to relax enough to stop watching the rise and fall of Erik’s chest. This wasn’t the first time she’d sat next to someone who’d been bitten, waiting for them to die so she could take care of them before the virus took over. It had never been easy before and this time was even more difficult. Especially since the doctors had told her they could handle it if she and Jane wanted. But the two scientists, and James, had become her family and she was not about to beg off this time.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice Steve in the doorway to the little room until he knocked on the frame. Jane jerked awake with a sharp inhale, coughing when she choked on her own spit. Darcy jumped up and reached over the bed to thump Jane on the back.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” Steve said, staying sheepishly in the doorway.

“It’s okay.” Jane gasped. Eventually, she could breath again and sat back down.

“What’s up?” Darcy asked, staying on her feet.

“Ah, the doctors, they want to see both of you in the conference room down the hall.” He shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. 

“Right now?” Jane seemed ready to protest being pulled away from Erik. “Why not in here?”

“This room isn’t really equipped for what they want to talk about.”

Darcy shot Jane a look, the older woman deflating and getting slowly to her feet. They followed Steve down the passageway to a small room that had a long table down the center with a holographic projector set in the middle of it. Sam sat in discussion with a few people Darcy assumed were doctors, around the table. They looked up when the women entered.

“Thank you for coming, ladies.” The man at the head of the table stood and gestured to the empty chairs. Darcy recognized him as Dr. Patel from the medical bay earlier. “Please have a seat.”

He remained standing as Jane and Darcy sat down and probably had some kind of speech prepared but Jane pre-empted him by demanding answers as soon as her backside touched the chair.

“How long is this going to take? I’d really like to get back to Erik.”

To his credit, the doctor took Jane’s demands in stride.

“Well then, Dr. Foster, I’ll get straight to the point.” he said, smoothly. “We recently received a small sample of what we were told is a cure for KA-05. We haven’t had an opportunity to test this cure so in lieu of any other family members to give consent, we would like your permission to administer it to Dr. Selvig.”

The doctor had barely managed to finish speaking before Jane burst out with an enthusiastic, “YES!” 

Everyone looked at her with raised eyebrows.

“You don’t even know anything about this supposed cure,” Darcy reminded her. “Maybe you should let them talk first.”

Jane glared at Darcy, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. “What’s the worst that could happen? Erik dies? This is better than doing nothing. At least with this, we’d have tried.”

“I get that. But I still want to know more about this cure before we give it to him.” Darcy replied, defiantly.

Jane’s lips turned down in a moue of disagreement but instead of arguing, she shrugged. “Fine but I’m not changing my mind.”

Darcy rolled her eyes and turned back to Dr. Patel. “Please continue.”

He smiled in understanding as he turned on the projector and began his presentation. A hologram sprang up showing what Darcy assumed was a magnified image of the virus.

“Initial observations into KA-05 classified the organism as a virus. However further research has led us to believe that it is actually a parasite that forms colonies in a manner similar to colony based insects such as ants or termites. Transmission occurs through contact with an infected host’s saliva and bodily fluids, usually through an open wound such as a bite. Once inside the body, the parasites target the brain and nervous system, destroying all but the most necessary brain tissue and replacing nerve cells. This then allows the parasite to kill off the host but also take control of the body, essentially creating a mobile colony. The colony is capable of fighting off other infections and dramatically slowing the decay process, allowing the host body to survive for months, possibly even years depending on what kind of damage the colony incurs.”

The images changed to show something happening in a microscope. Darcy had never been a great student of the hard sciences but it looked a lot like one of those color changing chemical reactions to her.

“In laboratory testing, the cure has shown promise however we are unsure of the precise mechanism through which the cure defeats KA-05 or how it reacts inside the body. The information that was provided with the sample indicate that it must be administered to the patient prior to death in order to be effective and we have not had an opportunity to test it on a human patient since we received it.”

“How long ago was that? And where did it come from?” Darcy asked, curiously.

“We received the sample six days ago in a package that came from one of our undercover agents inside Hydra,” answered Sam.

Jane narrowed her eyes at the two men. “Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”

 

Steve lifted his hands, defensively. “I didn’t get briefed on this until we got back.”

“The lab testing took a few days, Dr. Foster.” The medical doctor interjected smoothly. “We had to move very cautiously as there was a lot suspicion over the authenticity of the sample.”

Jane did not appear satisfied with that answer but settled in her chair anyway. 

“How do you think the cure works?” Darcy asked.

Dr. Patel’s lips pursed, “I don’t like to speculate but at this juncture, it seems to me that the cure is simply a poison.”

Darcy’s eyebrows flew up to hit her hairline. “Poison? How do we know it won’t kill Erik anyway then?”

“Again, Miss Lewis, this is my speculation and nothing has been scientifically proven but the KA-05 parasite is singularly unique.” He folded his arms over his chest, shifting uncomfortably. “I have never seen another organism like it on this planet and neither has the human immune system, hence our body’s inability to fight it. My belief is that it was biologically engineered for some other purpose and it backfired on its creators. This cure is also a compound I have never seen before, it doesn’t resemble anything we might consider a vaccine or antibiotic. However, in human analogue tests, it has affected only the parasite and left the other tissues untouched.”

Darcy looked up at the hologram of KA-05 and wondered at the destruction such a microscopic creature had wrought. She just hoped it was causing Hydra as much pain and grief as it was causing her.

“Well?” Jane asked, breaking Darcy’s moment of introspection.

She shook herself, rubbing her hands over her face. “Yeah, okay.”

Jane smiled, more than a little smug and nodded to Dr. Patel. He returned the smile grimly and gestured to his colleagues. “Let’s get started.”


End file.
